Referring to FIG. 1, a block diagram of a rack server system is illustrated. The rack server system includes a Rack Management Controller (RMC) 100, a plurality of Rack Back Planes (RBPs) 200 and a plurality of servers 700. Each of the servers 700 includes a Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) 300. Each of the RBPs 200 is connected electrically between the RMC 100 and corresponding multiple ones of the BMCs 300 of corresponding multiple ones of the servers 700. Each of the servers 700 is a node capable of independent operation and including electronic components, such as a central processing unit (CPU), a southbridge, a northbridge, volatile memory, a storage unit and a network chip.
The rack server system further includes a plurality of fan sets 400, a Power Distribution Board (PDB) 500 and a plurality of Power Supply Units (PSUs) 600. Each of the RBPs 200 is connected to a respective one of the fan sets 400, for heat dissipation of the corresponding ones of the servers 700 which are connected to the RBP 200. Each of the PSUs 600 provides operational power to a respective one of the RBPs 200, to the servers 700 correspondingly connected to the respective RBP 200, and to the fan set 400 connected to the respective RBP 200. Each of the fan sets 400 includes one or more fans, and is controlled by the respective RBP 200 based on operating parameters, e.g., temperature of the CPUs, environmental temperature, etc., which are collected by the servers 700 connected to the respective RBP 200.
It has been known that the RMC 100 and the RBP 200s each include a processor unit provided with a firmware program. However, since the RBPs 200 do not include a port for external connection, when firmware update of the RBPs 200 is desired, transmission of a firmware updating program to the RBPs 200 must be carried out by means of the RMC 100. Moreover, transmission of the firmware updating program to a next one of the RBPs 200 cannot be implemented until a current one of the RBPs 200 has completed receipt of the firmware updating program, where the firmware updating program is transmitted section by section with the firmware updating program being composed of a plurality of sections. In addition, conventionally, once a section of the firmware updating program is transmitted by the RMC 100 to the RBP 200, a response from the RBP 200 confirming successful receipt of the section is required before the RMC 100 can transmit the next section to the RBP 200. Since the server rack system 100 may include tens or more of the RBPs 200, detection for timeout or packet loss is required during the transmission process, and retransmission of the lost packet may be required. Therefore, it takes considerable time for completing firmware updates of all of the RBPs 200. For example, if firmware having a file size of 200 KB to 400 KB is provided to ten RBPs for firmware update, it takes about ten to fifteen minutes to complete the whole updating process. In addition, during the updating process, when update failure occurs in one of the RBPs 200, the whole updating process terminates. It takes more time for a maintainer to determine which one of the RBPs 200 has not been updated.